by Maria Sofou

Artist Noah Scalin has created an amazing series of artworks entitled Anatomy of Warthat consists of human, ‘anatomically correct’ guns. Scalin’s creations come of a mixture of polymer clay, acrylic and enamel and aim to humanize guns in order to discuss gun violence in a more sensitized and complex way. Anatomy of War provokes the viewer and motivates people to think of all the lives lost by guns, replacing the bullets with human organs.

“These guns have been clinically dissected revealing a remarkably human set of internal organs – rather than the cold steel and bullets normally found within. The objects becomes as fragile as the lives that they can potentially take. In addition the gun become a physical extension of the body of the user of the weapon, albeit one with a conspicuously absent brain.It’s impossible to separate the violence of the ongoing wars around the globe from the weapons that fuel them – specifically the countless numbers of small arms that are endlessly in circulation passing hand-to-hand. However, too often the discussion around guns in America gets wrapped up in emotional terms around the 2nd Amendment. Anatomy of War brings the discussion back to the individual human level,”the artist explains.